THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 3, 2023

Liam Broady

Press Conference

L. BROADY/C. Lestienne

6-1, 6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference for Liam Broady.

Liam, must be feeling pretty good right now. Tell us what it feels like.

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, it's been a tough couple of weeks. Didn't feel too great in Eastbourne. I got chopped up by Ymer. Grass season is never easy. If you're not feeling confident, it can go by really quick, especially with the way the sport's played on this surface.

Last four, five days I think I prepared really well. I felt great yesterday going to bed. I don't normally sleep well before matches, but I slept well yesterday. Kind of felt like I was ready. I think the performance showed that today.

It's my first-ever straight-sets win at Wimbledon, so well done to me (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I saw the Man City account tweeted you, wishing you good luck. How inspiring is that for you as a City fan? Are you inspired in general by them?

LIAM BROADY: I actually read a book, is it called The Guardiola Effect or The Pep Guardiola? I read a book about that. I find that stuff fascinating.

I think elite sport, elite business, I think there are interchangeable sort of things that you can take from anything like that. I find the football fascinating, especially obviously, I can say it now, Man City are the best team in the world (smiling). It's not up for debate anymore, is it?

But, yeah, I mean, it was cool. It was about 20 or 30 minutes before I went on today. They tweeted me. I thought, Oh, God, I'm not going to tweet them now before the match, I'm want to try and get a win, then I can reply.

They're amazing. They're always so supportive of me. I can remember playing here at the age of 17 and buzzing off them tweeting me. It's still the same to this day. I absolutely love it.

I'm grateful they keep a track of my career the way I keep a track of the football club.

Q. What did you get up to during the rain delay? How frustrating was that?

LIAM BROADY: It's difficult because I think we got told not before 3:15, which was about 40 minutes after we came off court. Being on at the time we were, I'd had breakfast, I didn't really have much to eat after that because you don't want obviously to have indigestion on court.

Obviously a 35-minute break, you don't really have enough time to eat, so you kind of have to find things to eat that aren't going to make you feel slow on court. Then it ended up being an hour or an hour and 15 that we went on in the end.

Obviously if I'd have known that at the start, I'd probably have had a full bowl of pasta. It's always in your mind you could go five sets, you could be out there for four hours. If you've only had two poached eggs on toast at 8 in the morning, it's not really enough, is it?

I always find that is probably the more difficult thing. Also obviously the time in the warmups, going on court, being warm.

I think we did a good job of it anyway today.

Q. Obviously you've got a bit of a habit winning first-round matches here. What's the secret?

LIAM BROADY: Get a favorable draw. Don't play Novak Djokovic in round one.

I wouldn't say there's a secret. I think as I've gotten older, obviously got more experienced, I've become a lot more comfortable playing here. I remember one of the first times I played, I played Marinko Matosevic. I actually won that one.

I remember being so stressed in the days leading up to that. I can remember when I drew Andy and Raonic a couple years later in separate tournaments, again being so stressed before the match, being so worried, and feeling like if I don't perform, then the whole world's going to crumble.

Whereas now I kind of feel like, number one, you have to relish the opportunity. You have to accept that it's a privilege to compete at this tournament. There aren't many people that ever get the opportunity to do that. Yeah, I think you have to try and make the memories yourself.

You have to go out there and try and produce things that make you feel proud of yourself and that one day you'll be able to tell people you did, whereas I think maybe in the past I kind of gone into it with a bit more of a fear mindset. So yeah.

Q. You were on the court more than seven hours to win the first two games last year. Nice to get on and off in just over two hours?

LIAM BROADY: I think historically over the course of my career, in the slams, and away from the slams, I do like to make a meal out of matches sometimes.

Obviously last year it was actually really good for me mentally to sort of understand that I could play 7 hours of singles in three days with a 2-hour 48-minute doubles match in between. I played almost 10 hours of tennis in three days, and I felt great. It was kind of good for me emotionally to know that I could go through that.

Then today, going a break down twice in the third, in the back of your mind, you're always thinking, Geez, I don't want this to go to five sets. It happens every bloody year.

So, yeah, I think again that experience, I'm 29 years old now, I've been pretty much in every position you can be in at Wimbledon. To have that wherewithal to think, No, okay, let's just see what we can do in this set now, rather than just giving in to the momentum, thinking, Okay, we'll just go again in the fourth set, to now dig our heels in here and see if we can get it done in three.

Q. You opted for the clean-shaven look this year. Any reason for that?

LIAM BROADY: I think I'm just getting a bit old now, aren't I? I want to look younger now (laughter). The beard was always so I could look older. I remember walking into a bar last year. I went to show the guy my ID in Manchester. He said, You look about 35, you don't need to show me your ID.

I was like, All right. I'm going to be looking younger now I think.

Q. You mentioned the City thing. They have a big Norwegian involved, important this year. You have a big Norwegian coming up against you.

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, I didn't think about that. They're good at producing great athletes. Footballers in the world, as well. Both beasts in their own right. Haaland, physically a beast; Casper has a beast of a game. He absolutely rips the ball. He's a physical beast in his own way.

I think it will be a fantastic opportunity. I mean, I just said a couple minutes ago to one of my friends, This is the reason I play tennis, is to get these opportunities.

I'm proud of the fact that I played Andy on Centre Court at Wimbledon. He might have slapped me around for a few hours, but that's a fantastic thing in my eyes to have been able to have played Andy on Centre.

The opportunity to play Casper, someone who I've never played before, I'm really excited, and hopefully can make a good match of it.

Q. On the point of finishing it off in three sets, do you feel at Wimbledon it's harder to close out a match because of the pressure? Do the other Brits talk about that? It just feels bigger as an occasion.

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, I guess so. I think the slams, it's just different. I don't know why that is. I think everyone can agree, at the slams it's just above everything else. I think you can see that in the way the players play.

Dramatic things happen at the slams that don't tend to happen at other tournaments. I'd say probably more so at Wimbledon for British players, there's that added layer of pressure.

At the end of the day a lot of British people don't really watch tennis. It's not one of the bigger sports in the country. Pretty much everyone watches Wimbledon. That's what this event does for our sport. That is always in the back of your mind when you're playing, definitely.

Q. You play a lot on the challenger tour. Can you talk about how important that is for the game and yourself.

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of these guys that play in these slams, they kind of tend to just crush through challengers. I can remember Shapovalov and Felix kind of did that from a very young age. There are a lot of players, you even see Andy now, that kind of have to drop down to the challengers and go back up to the ATPs.

I think the challenger tour is obviously 52 weeks a year for guys like myself, but then there are other guys that have to use that to kind of supplement the ATP Tour. Without the challenger tour, the quality of the tennis on show at these events would be nowhere near as good as it is.

It enables the better players to get that match practice and the lower-level players to gain that confidence and the match practice to be able to push the better players in the big events.

I think over the last sort of five to ten years, I think not only in the men's game, but the women's game, that sort of mid-tier of men's tennis and women's tennis has developed massively. That's why I think we probably see a few more upsets nowadays.

Q. You played Centre Court against Andy, then Court 15 today. You expect a bigger court against Ruud or do you care?

LIAM BROADY: I don't. Look, everybody wants to play Centre Court at Wimbledon. That's just what it is. It's like playing a Champions League final. It's just what you want to do.

I'd happily play him on Court 12 out in the bullpen, on the outside of Centre Court as well. Pretty cool. I'm not sure we'd have enough room on those back courts. Probably be quite good.

I actually find the outside courts, the atmosphere for me I think is almost sometimes better than the bigger courts. I mean, I played Court 3 against Schwartzman last year. I never played in an atmosphere like that at Wimbledon, be it Centre Court or Court 1. I don't know if people have a few more drinks on the outside courts. They get way more stuck in.

That's not saying the atmosphere is bad on Centre or Court 1. It's incredible. When the crowd does get loud on those courts, it takes your breath away. On the outside courts, consistently, especially for the British players, it's just amazing.

Q. You'll take a No. 2 or 3 court maybe?

LIAM BROADY: I'm playing the No. 4 in the world second round of Wimbledon. I'll play him back up in Stockport if I have to. I don't mind.